


beneath the city lights

by johnjaemark



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Shadow World Setting (Shadowhunter Chronicles), Character Study, M/M, Sort of? - Freeform, Warlocks, Werewolves, catboy jaemin
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-22
Updated: 2020-08-22
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:35:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,256
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26052787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/johnjaemark/pseuds/johnjaemark
Summary: A Shadowhunter and a warlock meet in a bar, from there a story forms.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Na Jaemin
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28
Collections: nahyuck fic fest!





	beneath the city lights

Donghyuck wasn’t necessarily against arachnid demons, he wouldn’t word it that way. No, in fact, he was completely and totally for the absolute annihilation of arachnid demons. There were some demons that he could stand, as much as a shadowhunter could stand a demon, that he was content with going up against. Arachnid demons were not on that spectrum. Scorpios and raveners weren’t so bad, not really, but anything that even slightly resembled a spider needed to stay far the fuck away from Donghyuck and his friends. 

Lee Jeno walked ahead of Donghyuck through the halls of the Seoul Institute, setting a much brisker pace than Donghyuck. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Donghyuck was waiting for his little sister, he might have joined his  _ parabatai _ , eager to rinse the ichor off from the Eluthied demon ( _ Eluthied _ , what a spectacular name to conceal what the demon really was).

“Don’t look so sour, Hyuckie,” Yuna purred from where she strided beside her brother. Based off her grin alone, she looked like a cat that had caught the canary. In a sense, she was, considering she had been the one to bring the case of the Eluthied to them to begin with. 

Donghyuck let out a low but displeased hiss. “Shut it.”

Jeno’s lovely laugh drifted through the hallway to reach their ears, the sound creating a warmth deep inside Donghyuck’s chest that spread through him. He relaxed, just slightly, at the fact that at least Jeno wouldn’t tease him over just how horrified he had been at the sight of the demon. Awful, how Yuna had the nerve to make jokes, when she had been equally as terrified by the sight of eight eyes and large pincers swiping at her. It didn’t matter, though, because if her big brother had been scared she wouldn’t let him live it down for a very long time.

Jeno came to a sudden stop in front of the training room, turning to face the siblings. His eyebrows were drawn together and there wasn’t a scratch to be seen on him, which was frustrating to say the least. Jeno always managed to get away unscathed or close enough that it didn’t seem to matter. 

“If you want to go catch a shower and clean up a little I can clean our weapons, Duckie.” The offer was sweet, probably Jeno’s way of soothing the turmoil of emotions that had formed. He would be able to tell over anyone, even Yuna, and if he could sense the knot inside Donghyuck’s belly then it really meant that he needed to calm the fuck down.

“Thanks, Jen.” Donghyuck’s smile was a little weak but it was better than nothing. “When I’m finished showering I’ll come find you?”

“Sounds good.” Jeno’s smile was so wide that his eyes curved into half crescents. His smile often caused this effect, but it made it no less stunning. There was no wonder that Jeno’s parents had been questioned several times if there was any faerie blood in their boy, merely because of how charming Jeno was. The same was asked of Donghyuck, but hardly for the same reasons. 

Yuna snorted, her smile more vicious than taunting. “You boys,” she scoffed as she passed by them, her ponytailing whipping against her brother’s face.

Donghyuck scowled, watching his sister practically skip down the hall, presumably to either clean off herself or create trouble elsewhere in the Institute. He hoped that she was stopped by their instructor, Doyoung, and nagged into doing something until she became so bored that she promptly dropped dead. It was a little much, but he didn’t fancy being made fun of for having arachnophobia.

“You good, Duckie?” Jeno questioned, peering at his  _ parabatai _ with drawn brows. 

Donghyuck forced a grin in hopes of reassuring Jeno, but knew that it wouldn’t do. “I’m fine, Nono. Don’t worry so much.”

The way Jeno continued to watch him, eyes trailing the smallest movements that Donghyuck made, was enough to tell Donghyuck that his best friend didn’t believe him, but it didn’t mean he would work too hard to fix the assumption. He was tired down to the bone, the kind of tired that left no room for reassurances. He knew that a hot shower would be able to solve at least part of it, but only a good sleep would resolve it completely. 

Donghyuck was eager to get away from the prying eye of his  _ parabatai _ , to take a moment for himself and think. There was nothing he loved more than hunting with Jeno and Yuna, but sometimes in the aftermath he was left with a dull ringing in his head and an oversensitivity to everything around him. Jeno could always notice,  _ would  _ always notice, the emotions prevalent in their eternal bond, no matter how hard Donghyuck tried to push them down.

He couldn’t imagine what a burden it was to Jeno.

The burden, that usually dripped down his skin and disappeared down the drain during his warm showers, clung to him for once. Less of a burden, more of a second skin that coated him, made his insides feel tight from the pressure of it. He had promised to find Jeno once he had finished with cleaning up, but instead of making his way back to the training room, his feet carried him back out the front door of the Seoul Institute. He had no destination in mind, just the desperate need to escape the epicenter of all the pressure that wrapped around his neck in an invisible noose. 

How he ended up at a bar, one that was populated mainly by Downworlders, he wasn’t sure. His feet seemed to carry him where they thought would be best fit for him to handle his emotions, but if that were true, they would have carried him to Jeno or Yuna. 

Donghyuck knew that the moment he stepped foot into  _ Dans L’ombre _ , all eyes were on him. In no way was it narcissistic, he didn’t think it was because he had a striking face, but rather because he was out of place. In Seoul, shadowhunters and Downworlders had a tentative peace; they stayed out of each other’s way and that was enough for both parties. Friendships and romances between the two parties was something that most turned a blind eye to, but it always ended up circulating through the rumor mill.

Donghyuck’s appearance at such a bar would make it’s round through the rumor mill as well, but he couldn’t care less. 

He slipped through the bands of werewolves and vampires, head held high and eyes straight forward. It didn’t matter that the bar was dead silent, a collective breath being held until they decided if Donghyuck was friend or foe. He took a seat at the bar, biting his tongue hard enough to draw blood, which wasn’t a good move in a bar with vampires. He figured that with the Accords, however, that they would manage to behave themselves. 

The bartender, a young werewolf girl with black bangs framing her amber eyes and wiry limbs moving oddly gracefully, shot Donghyuck a strange look. She didn’t offer a comment on his presence, or ask him to leave, so he figured that as long as he tipped her well she wouldn’t have much of a problem with him being there. He wished he could say the same about the other inhabitants of the bar. 

“What would you like to drink?” The bartender asked, and although she was young, her voice carried years of exhaustion. 

Donghyuck mustered the most charming smile that he could manage. “Whatever your usual is, I’ll have that.”

The bartender raised a dark eyebrow, but her stance relaxed, as if he had passed some secret test. She considered his statement, head cocked slightly before nodding, as if in agreement with herself. After her brief moment of deliberation, she turned and set to work on his drink, not bothering to inform him of what it was she was making. He watched her movements, eyes narrowing at the way she carried herself. Her limbs moved in a practiced way, one that he was extremely familiar with himself. 

“Lisa would tear your throat out for looking at her like that.”

Donghyuck turned, quick to defend himself to the stranger who had assumed he was  _ ogling _ the bartender. He had every intention of explaining that he didn’t swing that way and he was just curious how she had been taught to move like a shadowhunter when she clearly wasn’t, but all those words died on his tongue the moment his eyes fell upon the stranger. 

The man, the  _ warlock,  _ sitting next to him was simply stunning for a lack of better words. Donghyuck had never been good when it came to words, but in that moment he wished he would have studied Shakespeare more thoroughly just so he could write sonnets about this stranger’s beauty. 

Curling strands of icy blue hair fell over the warlock’s forehead and peeking through those strands are two ashy gray cat ears. In the right ear, a bit is missing at the top, as if the warlock had gotten into a fight and not only lost, but lost sorely. His eyes, an eerie cross between jade green and amber, had slitted pupils just like a cat as well. The warlock’s smile was broad, showing off what seemed like an impossible amount of teeth, but Donghyuck suspected that had less to do with the warlock heritage and more to do with the man’s personality.

“Jaemin, stop looking at my customers like you intend to eat them.” The bartender--Lisa--made her appearance known by sliding Donghyuck’s drink to him, but her eyes were focused on the warlock, narrowed. Donghyuck lowered his gaze, snorting slightly, irony settling in at the fact that the two bickering could be considered a cat and dog fight.

“I wasn’t going to eat him!” The warlock, apparently Jaemin, whined. His ears flattened against his head, and Donghyuck couldn’t tell if he had a tail but if he did then it would be curling. “I was merely warning him.”

“The only thing he needs to be warned of is  _ you _ ,” Lisa retorted, crossing her thin arms over her chest. Her eyes flickered over to Donghyuck, softening slightly. She lowered her head, came closer as if she was having a private conversation with Donghyuck. “You seem like you’ve had a rough day. If this brat bothers you too much, let me know. I’m not beneath kicking a High Warlock out of my bar.”

Donghyuck supposed he should have been more shocked at the fact that she was offering to look out for him, but instead, he was more caught on the fact that he was sitting beside the HIgh Warlock of Seoul. The name Jaemin had sounded awfully familiar, but he hadn’t really thought that it was  _ the  _ Na Jaemin. Nor had he thought that Na Jaemin’s appearance would be so young.

Although Donghyuck didn’t often come into contact with Downworlders, he was aware that their appearances and ages varied wildly. Jaemin and the bartender were obvious examples of that. Jaemin’s face was that of a college student, but it was likely that the warlock was centuries older than both himself and the bartender. If it were not for the distinct warlock marks and the powerful tang of magic that seemed to cloak Jaemin, Donghyuck would have pinned him as a Seelie instead.

The icy hair and the deceptively sweet smile were all indicators of a demon beyond an angel’s face. It was widely accepted that the Seelie’s were nice to look at, but nasty to interact with. 

“You would never kick me out,” Jaemin purred, breaking Donghyuck out of his reverie. He was speaking to the bartender, but his eyes were on Donghyuck. “You love me too much, Li. Don’t lie to the poor kid.”

Lisa’s grin was all sharp teeth and underlying threats. “Baby, you don’t know a damn thing about love or loyalty. I kicked you out two weeks ago when you wouldn’t stop intimidating that pup.”

“His name is Jisung and I would like to think that him and I are friends now,” Jaemin rebutted, his eyes still sparkling and his smile still wide. “And I hardly think that such a strong, brave Shadowhunter would scare of me so easily. Right?”

Donghyuck blinked. He wished that he could agree with Jaemin on that matter, but truthfully, he had hardly any experience in talking to warlocks, let alone High Warlock’s with glittering eyes of amber. Perhaps he should have been scared of Jaemin; perhaps he should have stood up and walked out the moment he realized who he was talking to. Except, the real kicker was that Donghyuck wasn’t afraid. He hadn’t been since the moment this conversation had sparked.

“He could do with some more fear in his life,” Lisa said, her voice grave and her eyes distant. The haze that had formed over her face drifted away easily at the sound of her voice being called from the other end of the bar. She shot Jaemin a warning look before slipping away easily, her customer service smile so broad and blinding that it nearly rivalled Jaemin’s. 

“She was a Shadowhunter once,” Jaemin offered in a much quieter, somewhat gentle voice. His eyes had finally left Donghyuck, catching on Lisa’s lithe form. “I like to think that she’s adjusted well to her circumstances. Despite being one of us now, I think she still holds a soft spot for your kind.”   
  


“My kind?” Donghyuck breathed out, incredulous.

Jaemin grinned once more, not nearly as bright as his previous ones, but still stunning nonetheless. “We are not the same, little Nephilim.” 

“I  _ know  _ that,” Donghyuck shot back, lips twisting and eyebrows pulling together. He had always known that Shadowhunters and Downworlders walked different roads in life, but he was of the mind set that the roads were parallel to each other at least. 

“You’re not so familiar with this side of the Shadow World.” It was a statement, not a question or an inquiry. Jaemin could see through all pretenses and facades, cherry-pick the truth with an ease that only an immortal with endless experience could perfect. 

Donghyuck squirmed in his seat, grumbling slightly. “I haven’t had much time to discover this side of the Shadow World. Training takes up much more time than you would think it does.”

“I have no doubt of that,” Jaemin agreed, sipping from a drink that Donghyuck hadn’t realized was in front of the warlock. “If it’s hard for you to wrap your head around how we operate, imagine how it must have been for Lisa. You’re merely  _ choosing  _ to spend your night with us, Lisa was forced into spending the rest of her life with us. She was forced to do so after she had been raised that she was meant to rule over us. It’s clear that they don’t teach you much about respect when it comes to our kind. No, they wouldn’t include that in your training.” 

A strike of defensiveness coursed through Donghyuck, but he couldn’t particularly deny what was said. Despite there being Accords that demanded both peace and justice between Shadowhunters and Downworlders, there was still a fountain of resentment and pain that bubbled beneath the facade. 

“Am I missing out on a lot?” Donghyuck was more startled by his own question than Jaemin was. Jaemin’s rose petal lips titled into a grin, dancing on the feline side, smug enough that Donghyuck could imagine a purr escaping from his teeth. 

“You’re missing out on a whole other world.”

Donghyuck was almost completely unaware of his hand reaching out, fingers extended. An invite for Jaemin to show him this world he was missing out on. However, it was impossible for Donghyuck to deduce whether or not Jaemin would have accepted this invite. The windows of the bar exploded, glass raining over the patrons who let out various yelps, hisses, and growls. Lisa vaulted over the counter easily, dropping into a defensive stance that would have been taught to her at a young age. 

Donghyuck fell into a similar stance just beside her, and to no fault of his own, Jaemin ended up behind them. His feline eyes had narrowed, predatory, seeking out the prey that had unwisely entered his domain. 

“Pack dispute,” Lisa said, her irises flashing a warning shade of amber. “You should get out of here, Jaem. Take the Nephilim too.”

“Wait! But I can help!” Donghyuck protested, widening his stance in order to put up a fair fight against the hand that had curled around his wrist.

One glance at Jaemin had him completely melting though. Jaemin’s smile was entirely too charming, too convincing. Donghyuck wasn’t too used to running away from dangerous situations, but maybe he wasn’t running away. Maybe Jaemin was accepting his invite, maybe Donghyuck could finally shed his tired skin, his jaded look on the world.

Perhaps it wasn’t just another world that Donghyuck wanted to explore. Donghyuck thought that he might be more than willing to dive into the depths of Jaemin, to learn more about the warlock that seemed to shimmer and shine as easily as breathing. There was a good amount of guts and glory in what Donghyuck did, a heavy emphasis on guts. Jaemin seemed to offer something more than simply surviving; his eyes seemed to promise an experience that only an immortal could give. 

“Let’s get out of here.” Donghyuck was secure in his decision, secure in the way that Jaemin held his hand. 

They fled into the night together, a Shadowhunter and a warlock whose stories became entwined by chance, not by fate. It was easy for humans to believe in such a fickle power as fate, but when faced with Donghyuck’s reality, faced with the horrors he came face to face with everyday, there was no such power to believe in.

Jaemin held tight to his hand, icy blue hair turning paler in the moonlight. Jaemin had been beautiful inside the bar, but beneath the moon and stars, he became something transcendent. It was as if he was created by their light, not the darkness that many of Donghyuck’s kind believed warlock’s to be birthed from. Faeries were the ones created with angel blood inside of them but Jaemin could have easily passed for one in that moment. 

The two men, both having been raised in darkness and ruin, raced through the streets. The moon and the street lights merely managed to catch glimpses of the two, and yet, even to them, it seemed too private of a moment to look at for long. There was something brewing in the air between them and it had been stirring from the moment they laid on eyes on one another. 

Pressed against the wall of a building, Donghyuck allowed Jaemin’s fingers to dance along the scars and runes that were half forgotten on his skin. There was such wonder in the warlock’s eyes, Donghyuck could hardly deny him. Jaemin had probably watched several civilizations rise and fall, and Donghyuck hardly wanted to hear about any of it. All he wanted to hear about was Jaemin and the world that Jaemin was a part of.

“Show me,” Donghyuck whispered, catching Jaemin’s hand, pressing it against his chest. His heart pounded a steady beat against Jaemin’s palm.

“I’ll show you the whole word.”

It sounded like a promise coming off of his lips. 

**Author's Note:**

> this did not turn out how i expected it... at ALL and i'm sorry about that. if you seem to like it... well then i think perhaps it could potentially turn into a series. i hope you like it, and i'm glad to have gotten to participate in this fest.


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